Thrive Services Used
Web Design &
Development
Search Engine
Optimization (SEO)
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Marketing
Creative
Content Writing
Organic Social Media
Marketing
Paid Social Media
Email Marketing
Project Overview
Brazos Higher Education came to Thrive Internet Marketing Agency seeking a comprehensive digital marketing strategy to refresh its brand and expand its student loan portfolio.
Brazos is a non-profit organization in Texas dedicated to helping students finance their college education. The organization needed a full-service web marketing partner that could solidify its position as a premier provider of low-cost assistance for higher education, drive more qualified leads and ultimately boost its loan volume.
Thrive has fully reinvented Brazos’ brand and entire marketing approach. The partnership allowed the organization to achieve a record-high 40% increase in one-year loan volume and a 300% boost in monthly site visits.
This achievement prompted Brazos to increase its annual marketing budget to 30% in an effort to double down on the successful campaigns. Thrive was then awarded additional contracts totaling $86,000 to handle new creative for the student loan campaign and an all-new refinance loan marketing initiative.
The Results
+40%
Total Loan Volume
+57%
Organic Traffic
+300%
Average Monthly Website Visits
+156%
Ad Conversions
Brazos initially hired Thrive to run paid advertising campaigns during “peak season” (May-September). After meeting and surpassing expectations, the client entrusted Thrive to rebuild its website and added services, including ongoing PPC management, search engine optimization (SEO), paid and organic social media, email marketing and creative.
Thrive’s holistic marketing approach enabled Brazos to become Texas’s trusted student loan provider. Over the three years of partnership, Brazos has thousands of keywords ranking in the search results, many of which are in the top 10 and top five positions.
Key Metric: Total Ranked Keywords
Total Ranked Keywords: This represents the aggregate total number of keywords for which the website holds a ranking across all tracked search engines. Keyword rank may span from 1st position to last ranked position in SERP result.
Brazos’ top-performing keywords include:
Total traffic, number of users and conversions also increased month-over-month:
(Data from January 2024)
- Total Traffic: +58%
- Organic Traffic: +39%
- Student Loan Conversions: +57%
- Parent and Student Loan Conversions: +44%
- Total Users: +57%
- New Users: +56%
- Ad Conversions: +35%
- Events: +59%
Search Engine Optimization
(January – August 2023 vs. January – August 2024)
- Total Traffic: +46%
- Organic Traffic: +57%
- Total Users: +55%
- New Users: +54%
PPC Marketing
- Sessions: +95%
- Conversions: +156%
- Impressions: +27%
- Ad Clicks: +448%
- Click-Through Rate: +332%
- Cost Per Click: -62%
- Conversions: +257%
- Cost Per Conversion: -41%
- Conversion Rate: +189%
Paid Social Media
- Sessions: +100%
- Conversions: +100%
- Total Ad Spend: -53%
- Post Engagement: +7%
- Cost Per Lead: -69%
- Leads: +51%
- Website Leads: +51%
By year two of the engagement, the powerful combination of brand creative and paid strategies drove incredible results for Brazos. General student loan campaigns brought the maximum number of conversions (35.7%) at the lowest cost per conversion.
Peak Season Performance (June – September 2023)
- Impressions: +10.2M
- Ad Clicks: +103K
- Conversions: +5K
- Conversion Rate: +2%
- Cost Per Conversion: $43
Peak Season Performance (November 2023 – January 2024)
- Impressions: +1.6M
- Ad Clicks: +46K
- Conversions: +3.5K
- Conversion Rate: +2%
- Cost Per Conversion: $14
Because of the number of services and the sizable budget, we have built a very strong partnership and relationship with the client.
Brazos was brand new to digital advertising when it started with Thrive, so seeing the organization succeed in an advertising realm in which it was very nervous about investing has been rewarding.
Brazos’ investment has paid off in two record-breaking years of increased loan volume — with its first $11-million week during the last week of July.
Ultimately, Brazos witnessed increased visibility and awareness within its target market, contributing to its overall growth.
The Execution
Thrive’s strategy for Brazos was multifaceted.
Creative Strategy
Recognizing the importance of a strong brand identity in capturing the attention of its target audience, Thrive collaborated with Brazos to conceptualize and execute a refreshed brand image.
This involved:
- Concept creation for the overall messaging
- Crafting compelling campaign slogans
- Designing visually engaging graphics
- Executing video and photoshoots on location at the University of North Texas
- Producing captivating videos and imagery
The creative direction aimed to position Brazos as the affordable choice for students financing their education in Texas. The key messaging centered around the client’s promise: Dream Big, Save Big.
Organic and Paid Marketing
We also implemented an integrated digital marketing approach utilizing multiple tactics:
- Search engine optimization (SEO) to increase organic visibility
- Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns
- Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
- Paid social media marketing
The digital strategies were designed to get Brazos’ new creative messaging in front of the right audiences at ideal times.
Combining the new creative direction with organic and paid marketing tactics allowed Brazos to establish a unified, impactful brand presence online.
Continuous Optimization
As campaigns ramped up in year two and drove strong results, Brazos increased its annual marketing budget by 30% to further invest in successful strategies. Thrive was awarded additional contracts for new student loan creative refreshes as well as an all-new refinance loan marketing initiative.
By revamping its creative identity and executing an integrated digital marketing game plan, Thrive empowered Brazos to dominate the student lending space in Texas.
